Letter: Irish aid workers driven by history

IN ANSWER to Richard Dowden's question in his admirable article on the famine in Sudan: 'Why are so many aid workers Irish?' ('Why the food just stopped', Review, 6 June). We like to think that, far from being attracted to death and war, Irish people become aid workers because we have a folk memory of our own famine and consequently have a natural empathy with people who starve while governments stand by.

Conor V Egleston

Peterborough, Cambs